Hernandez at a Town Hall Meeting of the Board of Directors of the American Chemical Society.

The ACS should be the first place that everyone goes to when they seek answers to questions related to chemistry. Our journals are the “Most trusted. Most cited. Most read.” They are the first place many turn to when they want to disseminate or learn new advances in our discipline and practice. Our national and international meetings have historically been among the largest chemistry meetings. Many chemists receive scholarships or grants advancing their careers and science from the ACS. Thus, the ACS has been first in the chemical sciences for the past century or more. We need to ensure that the world beyond us knows this. We should also not forget that the ACS is where many of us first found community in chemistry, and where we continue to introduce it to the next generation. To these ends, I would like to charge an ACS First Task Force to establish a vision for how the ACS can be the primary home for all chemists, and everyone who should engage us.